ADAPTATION STRATEGIES AMONG PETTY TRADERS IN SECURING LIVELIHOODS DURING COVID-19 HIGH TENSION PERIOD IN UBUNGO MUNICIPALITY, TANZANIA

Abstract

The Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization on March, 2020 a situation that drew attention among the world communities. In Tanzania the first case was reported on 16th March, 2020 in Arusha Region and few weeks later other cases were reported in other regions which made the whole country to be devastated. Following the declaration of Covid-19 in Tanzania different social services were closed that led to a decline in demand of various commodities. This situation threatened the livelihoods of various individuals and groups of people including petty traders. This paper assessed adaptation strategies among petty traders in securing livelihoods at the midst of Covid 19 with the case of Ubungo Municipality, Tanzania. Data were collected through questionnaire, focused group discussion (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs) and field observation. SPSS and Microsoft Excel were used to analyse quantitative data while qualitative data was analysis by content analyse. The findings reveals that selling newly demanded Covid 19 safety and hygienic commodities alongside common consumer goods was one of the most important adaptation strategies among petty traders in Ubungo Municipality. Further, the findings reveals that petty traders faced a number of challenges including health risks, financial problem, decline of customers and drastic fall of prices which threatened the profitability of their business. It is recommended that further scientific studies be directed towards solving constraints faced and investigating the opportunities of Covid-19 pandemic to be utilised for resilient business and sustained livelihoods.